“The proposal seeks an additional charge on cups as a deposit to encourage them to be returned to a retailer. However a number of coffee shops offer a discount if you use your own cup so effectively cups are already being charged extra with as much as 25p the differential. Even those who have given away reusable cups and offered a free coffee the first time you use it with ongoing discounts have witnessed an initially high use of reusables followed very quickly by a return to the previous split between paper cups and keep cups – i.e. the change in consumer behaviour is extremely short term.

“If reusables are not used at least the number of times equal to the equivalent number of paper cups, taking into account the whole life cycle of each form of packaging, there is an environmentally negative effect. Major coffee shops are taking back all coffee cups, their own and competitors and this means we have over 2,500 collection points and this number is growing. The cups are paced in a bin separate to where fresh food and drinks are being served.

“A deposit scheme would require the public to take back their coffee cups to the retailer and they would need to hand them over at the counter so introducing hygiene issues. The proposal states all venders must take back cups and return the deposit whether the coffee / tea was purchased from them or not. This will give problems to the very small vendors and kiosks regarding storage of used cups and potential issues in refunding deposits. Its hard to see how deposits would be returned for coffee purchased from a vending machine other than taking the cup to a retail outlet, therefore the vending industry will be effectively exempted from returning deposits, they will just collect them.

“The cups would not be dealt with under the coffee shops waste management contract as these schemes require the packaging to be returned to a central organisation as the deposits given for accounting reasons. The system only works financially provided not everyone brings back their cups as funding is needed to pay for administration and transportation. The additional transportation means an increased in carbon footprint.

“The study proposes the deposit will be an incentive to redesign cups. This suggests that somehow convertors are holding back on designing cups so they can be more easily recycled. This is not the case as clearly there is a competitive advantage to be achieved. It must be remembered that the cups are designed to be fit for purpose and so redesign must not dilute this.

“Finally the proposal is aimed at increasing collection for which great advances have already been achieved. What it doesn’t do is create funding for the UK’s recycling infrastructure. Surely increasing the numbers of cups actually recycled is the priority and not punishing the public for buying coffee.”

ts given for accounting reasons. The system only works financially provided not everyone brings back their cups as funding is needed to pay for administration and transportation. The additional transportation means an increased in carbon footprint.

“The study proposes the deposit will be an incentive to redesign cups. This suggests that somehow convertors are holding back on designing cups so they can be more easily recycled. This is not the case as clearly there is a competitive advantage to be achieved. It must be remembered that the cups are designed to be fit for purpose and so redesign must not dilute this.

“Finally the proposal is aimed at increasing collection for which great advances have already been achieved. What it doesn’t do is create funding for the UK’s recycling infrastructure. Surely increasing the numbers of cups actually recycled is the priority and not punishing the public for buying coffee.”

Executive Director of the FPA Martin Kersh can be reached on 0207 993 8343 or 07711 142789

Issued on behalf of the FPA by Leapfrog PR. Editorial contact for the FPA is Felicity Read on 01242 282000 or email felicity@leapfropgpr.com